From their annual meeting in Pam Springs, CA, the Internet Advertising Bureau published its Defining Cross-Platform Engagement White Paper. While there are plenty of interesting metrics to be found, we’re excited to see a short and sweet definition of viewthrough. Positioned as one of the three categories, Display Viewthrough is included among behavioral metrics.

Definition: Number of Brand site visits that could have been influenced by display media within a particular look-back window.
Measureable Today: Yes, Web Analytics

While this is a small victory for the cause of viewthrough measurement, there is plenty more to do to get the word out about VT. We’d like to advise the IAB that the prior metric included in this section of their study, “Video Completion Viewthrough Rate” ought to get a different name – perhaps “Play-through?” It is bad enough that Viewthrough and Viewability,  are routinely confused but this could actually obfuscate the different kinds of post-impression behavior, e.g. VT Visits, VT Conversions, etc…Also, the following metric listed, “Searched for More Information” could also use a better name – Viewthrough Site Search?

Other considerations:

• VT does not have to be at a branded site although this is most likely, e.g. related microsites
• Any high-value task that can be measured in a Web analytics platform could have a VT source
• Look-back windows are usually set by the ad server not Web analytics systems
• Like the “could have been influenced” but no mention of how to understand incrementality

Scroll down to Page 10 of the Defining Cross-Platform Engagement White Paper, to read it for yourself.